Diary of a Shoe-Thief
by Priestess Theophania
Summary: Heather is having the worst day of her life, when she runs into an unlikely boy...who isn't all that he seems. She is introduced to a world few remember and her life changes...forever. Rated T for language.
1. Chapter 1

I had a bad day. Not just any bad day, mind you. I had just experienced what might have been the absolute worst day of my seventeen years of life.

My dog had died.

Shane had been my best friend since I was nearly two years old. I took my first steps with him, pulling myself up with fistfuls of his hair. My parents said he didn't even whimper. He was there when my first human friend moved away. I was inconsolable for weeks…and he stayed with me and let me cry my feelings out into his soft fur until the pain became manageable. He was there when the first boy I had ever loved decided to go out with a classmate I loathed in seventh grade. Shane sat unflinchingly through tirade after tirade until I found another guy to crush on. And he was there when that same guy violated my trust in the worst way possible at a party almost a year ago… My best canine friend never let on that anything was wrong to my parents, who I still could not seem to talk to about that night…

Now he was gone.

I had just come inside from burying him in the backyard with Mom and Dad and I told them I wanted to go to bed early. It was nine o'clock and I had school the next day, so it wasn't all that unbelievable. Truth was, I was feeling too much…and I needed a way to release those feelings.

I went upstairs to my bedroom and locked the door. I took a deep breath and walked over to my bed and pulled out a box that I kept hidden away beneath my mattress and box spring. The box was small and made of wood. I had built it in Girl Scouts back in fifth grade, but had since covered it with magazine clippings that were supposed to make me feel better. Words like "Happy" and "Carpe diem" covered the top of it. It was my happy box.

Sitting on my bed, I turned to look out the window, gazing at the freshly turned earth and the headstone that marked Shane's final resting place. My heart constricted in my chest and it became heard to breathe. So I took the razor out of my box.

The metal felt cool between my sweaty fingertips. I could feel my heart give a little jump at the prospect of what was to come, adrenaline pumping through my veins. The feelings were mounting now, as they always did right before I make the first cut. I closed my eyes as I pressed the sharp edge to my wrist, where I could feel my heart fluttering…I was certain I would feel so much better after…

That's when I heard the sound. A soft whump from outside that startled me out of my reverie. I turned slightly and that's when I noticed the boy in our backyard. He was crouched down low, as if he had just jumped the wooden fence my dad had built before I was born and was recovering. The moonlight shined brightly off of his white baseball cap and matching T-shirt. I watched him dust his hands off on his jeans, as he got up and walked over to Shane's grave. My blood reached a boiling point and I opened my window.

The boy hadn't noticed he was being watched, and I crept onto the window sill and down onto the wooden patio canopy my dad had also built not too long ago. I landed with a soft whump of my own. The boy was still too distracted by Shane's grave to notice me. I crept to the edge of the canopy. I probably should have alerted my parents or called the police before it got to this point, but the rational side of mybrain was drowned out by all of the feelings that hadn't been released yet. All I could think of was that it would be a one story drop if I jumped, and if I jumped on the boy…

When he placed his hand on Shane's grave, that sealed it.

I heard myself snarl as I leapt from the canopy and landed on the invader. I heard him squeal from beneath me, but the fall had jarred me from my feet to the top of my head and some part of his scrawny body had jabbed me in the thigh. I could feel the muscles throbbing. The world turned upside down briefly as he shifted and I realized that the boy was trying to get away. I twisted around on the ground and grabbed his left ankle. I tweaked it for good measure and he squealed again.

"Oh, no you don't!" I growled. "I'll scream for my parents if you try to get away."

Honestly, I was surprised that my parents hadn't heard all of the noise that we had been making already. I was kind of counting on them to come running out here and help me…

"No, don't," he pleaded, his blue eyes locking with mine for the first time. "Please don't." His gaze shifted slightly, like he was looking at something behind me. I risked a glance behind, fearful that he might have come with a friend that I hadn't noticed, and saw one of his shoes had come off in our scuffle. He wriggled a little, but I held him fast and frowned at him, trying to ignore the fact that his blonde hair and high cheekbones made him really cute. He looked back up at me and smiled suddenly as if he had been reading my thoughts.

"You seem like a nice girl…I'm sorry to have disturbed you. Could you please let me go?" He gave me a smile that would have melted the hearts of the entire cheerleading squad.

His words washed over me like a soft caress and I could feel my resolve beginning to slip. He did seem like a nice, trustworthy guy. Perhaps he had just gotten lost and…

I shook my head to clear it of the foggy thoughts that had begun to cloud it.

"Not a chance."

And I twisted his ankle again for good measure.

"Ow!" he cried. "Stop that!"

"I want some answers first. What were you doing with Shane's grave?"

The boy frowned back, realizing that his good looks and charm wouldn't get him anywhere with me. Not when it comes to my dog.

"I was just checking it out," he explained, turning his palms up in a helpless gesture. "Hey, can I have my shoe? My foot's starting to get cold."

"I'm not taking my eyes off of you," I snarled. "And what do you mean you were just checking it out?"

"I wanted to see the grave. It seemed cool," he said, as if this were the most logical answer in the world.

The fact of the matter was, I had never seen this kid before in my life. And our town is one of those small towns where everybody knows everybody.

"Bullshit. Who are you? Where do you come from? Why haven't I seen you around before?"

"Jeez, what is this, the inquisition?" he shot back, his blond eyebrows narrowing into an irritated V.

"I'll scream…" I warned.

"Okay, fine, jeez…um…who am I? Um…I am…Henry? And…um…where do I come from?" he trailed off as the ground began to tremble. His eyes widened again.

It wasn't a violent shake, and unless you were sitting right on the ground like we were, I doubt if anyone would have felt it. But we both did. Henry looked at the grave apprehensively and I spun around, keeping a firm grip on his ankle.

There was a crack in the soil.

"What the hell?"

Henry groaned from behind me.

"Look girl, you might want to go back inside. You don't want to see this."

I was ignoring him, because what came out of that crack was…Shane.

At least it kind of looked like Shane. It was nearly transparent and shimmered in the moonlight. It had the outline of my old dog, but none of the substance that made him real. Was I hallucinating?

"Oh no... Oh man, he is going to kill me for this. What did I do to deserve this?" he continued to moan from behind me.

"What in the world?" I gasped.

Then Shane barked at me.

I wheeled on Henry.

"Do you see that too?" I shouted in his face, praying to God that my parents would hear that and come running outside.

"Of course I do…" he sounded dejected. His blue eyes were focused on the grass.

"What the heck is going on?" I demanded loudly.

"It's your dog..." he sighed.

"My dog is dead!"

"Exactly… Your dog is dead… Can I have my shoe, please?" He refused to meet my gaze.

"You're not getting anything right now!" I ground my teeth in frustration. "So, what exactly is this? A ghost dog?"

"It's his soul…"

My head was swimming. First the overwhelming emotions, which I couldn't release earlier, and now this craziness?

"I was sent here to collect his soul."

"What?" I stammered. "Are you nuts?"

"You're seeing what I'm seeing, aren't you?" he countered. "You tell me."

I was silent a moment, weighing my next move carefully. "Who are you really?"

"I'm Hermes… I'm a psychopomp. I help the dead to pass on."

I bit my tongue hard and tasted blood. Nope, I definitely wasn't dreaming. "Hermes? Like, the Greek dude with the winged sandals?"

Henry rolled his eyes. "Yeah, the Greek dude."

"Prove it."

Henry crawled over to the ghost dog, careful not to jar the ankle I still had in my iron grip. He placed one hand on the dog's head and the dog disappeared. I think I may have snapped then.

I was suddenly on top of Henry, screaming at him and beating his chest with the shoe he kept asking for. "What did you do to Shane? What did you do?"

Hermes scrambled away from me, but didn't make a move to run away. "I sent him on his way!"

"I want to see him now! Where did he go?" I shouted.

"I can't show him to you. He's gone!" Henry was panting. "Can I have my shoe, please?"

There was a note of fear in his voice that I bet he wasn't expecting me to pick up on, but I did. I clutched the shoe tightly. "Show me my dog first."

"I can't! It's impossible!" Hermes was sounding desperate. "Give me back my shoe!"

I gripped the fancy Nike shoe in both hands. "Show me Shane or I'll break it."

"You don't get it, do you? He's in the Underworld where he belongs. You're mortal, you can't go there, and he can't leave. Now give me that shoe."

Hermes wasn't counting on someone who had studied Greek mythology with a voracious appetite in sixth grade, I bet. But he had found his match in me.

"Mortals can't go to the Underworld? What about Hercules and Odysseus , huh?"

Hermes looked like he'd swallowed a bug. "They were different."

"Well," I crossed my arms over my chest, still holding his precious shoe. "Do you want your shoe?"

"Yes… I guess we're going to the Underworld…"


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: The adventures continues!

"Hang on a second," I cautioned Hermes. "I want to check on my parents before we go anywhere."

I checked the backdoor. It was unlocked like it normally is, thank God. Easing the door open as quietly as I could, I noticed that all of the lights were off downstairs. Mom and Dad must have gone to bed early too. Not that I blamed them. Shane was like a central flame in our home…we all loved him…and now that flame had been extinguished…or sent to the Underworld, according to a certain blond-haired boy-God.

I crept silently across the family room floor, passing the kitchen, until I was at the base of our staircase. From that spot, I could see my parents' double doors, which were shut. I didn't see any light shining from underneath, which meant they had definitely gone to bed. No wonder they didn't come outside to check on me. Mom sleeps with earplugs because Dad snores loud enough to wake the dead…no pun intended. It would have been a true miracle if they had heard anything outside at all.

I looked across the hall and saw that my door was still shut, the lights off as well. For all intents and purposes, it looked as though I were asleep as well.

I snuck back outside and closed the back door. Turning around slowly, I wasn't surprised to see Hermes still standing there, impatiently tapping his shoe-less foot. I had taken said shoe with me.

I found a pair of sandals on the doormat, probably my mom's, and slipped them on quickly.

"Let's get going," he whispered.

"Do you think we'll be gone long?" I asked Hermes, as I followed him over the fence.

"You'll be back before sunrise, if I have anything to say about it…and especially if he has anything to say about it," Hermes grumbled.

"He? Who's 'he?'"

"The king of the Underworld. I thought you knew your Greek mythology," he snapped back.

"Oh…Hades. I do know my Greek mythology, but all my life I figured that's all it was…mythology."

Hermes snorted, "Please. We were around long before the religions you see today. We don't just disappear because a new religion comes to town."

"Yeah, but…everyone says the Greek Gods aren't real. That they never were. That they were just made-up stories, ways for the ancients to make sense of the world around them," I reasoned out loud, keeping a firm grip on the shoe in my hand.

Hermes snorted again and didn't say anything as we crossed the street. I realized he was heading toward the neighborhood park.

"So, what's the deal with this shoe?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

Hermes looked back at me, those blue eyes shining in the light of the full moon. "I can't fly without it."

I looked at the shoe more carefully. What I had initially mistaken for a Nike swoosh was actually stitching in the shape of a wing. "Oh..."

"I can show you how it works if you give me back my shoe," he offered with a mischievous grin.

"Nice try," I shot back. "But no."

We crossed the park quickly, passing by the swing set and jungle gyms I had played on as a kid. Hermes reached the edge of the park first and stopped before a massive bush. Then he pulled it aside without breaking a sweat.

"Here we go," he announced.

There was a giant hole in the ground.

"I never noticed that hole before…" I said.

"Probably because there is usually a giant bush on top of it," Hermes rolled his eyes. "After you."

I balked. "What? In…in there? That's how you get to the Underworld?"

Hermes narrowed those startling azure eyes. "No. Normally I have my shoes and can fly west until I get there. But because someone won't give me back my other shoe, we're going a different route. Now…after you."

I crouched down in front of the hole and studied it. It seemed wide enough to fit a human body through, but it was dark inside. I had no way of knowing how far down it went. And I knew Hermes was also a trickster God…so the hole in the ground story, while believable, could also very likely be a trap…

"If you need both your hands," he offered innocently, "I can hold that shoe for you."

I glared back at him. "Not on your life. I want to see my dog."

Hermes glared back and suddenly lashed out. He kicked me in the side and I pitched forward toward the hole. I felt a breeze pass by my face and realized he had lunged for the shoe…and missed. We both toppled into the hole and rolled head over heels for what seemed like an eternity. I clutched the shoe to my chest and screamed as my body was battered against the rocks and roots that lined the tunnel.

Finally, we both landed unceremoniously in a heap of tangled limbs. Somehow I managed to move myself into a sitting position on Hermes' chest. I was shocked to realize that I still had his shoe in my hand after our rough tumble.

Then I looked out at our surroundings and gasped.

It was obvious that we were underground. The natural ceiling above our heads was made entirely of rock. We were on what appeared to be a sandy shoreline and the underground ocean a few feet away from us seemed to stretch on endlessly. There was no natural light here, obviously, but an unnatural glow seemed to suffuse the entire area, bathing everything in an eerie gray light. Here and there, crystals of various sizes jutted out from the ceiling or the rock croppings along the beach and these gave off their own lustrous glow.

"What is this?" I asked stupidly.

Hermes grunted and shoved me off of him. "This…is the Underworld. Or at least the beginning of it. We're on the shores of the river Styx."

"That's a river?" I asked incredulously.

The boy nodded. "We just have to wait for the ferryman to arrive."

"Actually, the ferryman is here," a voice called from behind us.

I jumped as I noticed a figure in a small boat that I hadn't seen when I first scanned the river Styx. Hermes walked up to him like it was the most natural occurrences in the world.

"Nice landing," the figure chuckled in a gravelly voice.

"Hey Charon, I need to see the king…"

Charon was wearing long, gray robes…at least I think they were gray…in this light, everything looked gray…and he pulled back the cowl covering his face. I was surprised to see that he too was exceptionally good-looking. His face was starkly pale, framed by short-cropped black hair, and his eyes glowed green even in the drab lighting. I noticed, however, something strange happen whenever I looked away. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Charon's features morph and begin to decay ever so slightly…his skin growing gaunt and wrinkled, those green eyes sinking into his skull… It was disturbing. I made a mental note to keep my eyes on Charon at all times.

"The Master is very busy." Charon replied. "He will be displeased to see a live one down here again."

Hermes hung his head and I almost felt bad for him. Until I remembered that he was the one who had invaded my home, taken my dog, and kicked me down a giant rabbit hole.

"I know," Hermes sighed. "And she's the reason why I need to see him."

Charon shrugged. "I can take you both across. What the Master does with the both of you is none of my business. Do you have fare?"

The blondie fished around in his jeans pockets and pulled out a gold coin. "This is for her."

The ferryman took the coin and slipped it into his robes. Then he turned to look at me. "Come, mortal. Let's be on our way."

I walked over to the two of them and stopped before the edge of the water. Charon held a hand out to me and I took it gratefully. Without any effort at all, he hauled me up into the small boat. Then he took up the long pole he had lain across the boat and shoved us away from the shore.

"Heather, is it?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Nice shoe," he chuckled hoarsely.

Hermes groaned, "Oh har har…very funny…"


End file.
